Byram is worth £2M tops - anything more and Leeds skint owners will be laughing all the way to their secret Monaco bank account
Best attacking fullback in the league easy. Looks comfortable at left mid as well, could develop into a winger potentially.
In which case he is very likely to leave, because best players in the Championship rarely reside there for long irrespective of asking price. Fullbacks don't command a high fee so you could buy a decent replacement and one or two decent players for a promotion push with £4.5m
Nice try TC, but £2m wouldn't cover the insurance on Byram's big toe. Anyone who wants him will have to find at least £8m. We're in no rush to sell and his contract doesn't expire for a year or three yet.
Already demonstrated we don't need to sell to buy. The player has already stated he's happy at Leeds. Not really sure how the player is going to move if the club don't want to sell and the player doesn't want to move...
Agreed that we could find a decent replacement and build a good squad with that sort of money, but we still wouldn't sell him for anything less than £6m. We don't need to, he's a valuable member of the squad, tied down for another 3/4 years and a local Leeds lad. That's not to say he won't leave, but whoever signs him will have to spend way over his true value because he's happy, on a long term contract and a vital part of the team. If someone tried signing Ruddy you'd want over £10m for him - even though he's probably only worth half of that. That's the way it is
I'm not disputing that , I'm disputing that you wouldn't go lower than £6m (you're not wrong about Ruddy - we're currently fending off a bid from Chelsea...) I just seriously doubt that the club would refuse a bid in the region of £4.5m because that is indeed "way over his true value", especially if there are good add-ons - it's not about whether you need to sell to buy more players, it's just simply what you could do with the funds if you did sell for such a good price. As for whether a player is happy or local - true, it helps (and probably should be worth more than it is in this sorry age), but unfortunately triple wages and a chance to prove yourself in the Premier League would probably be enough to turn most heads... (Look at Howson). That wouldn't mean he wasn't happy, just that there was another opportunity. I personally think that £4.5m in the kitty plus whatever your budget is now, if spent wisely, could well put you in contention for auto promotions, whereas keep Byram (or spend the proceeds poorly) and the best you could realistically hope for is play-offs In any event, I doubt we'll buy him because we have two right backs (though one might be sold, of course). I think he's likely to go somewhere like Crystal Palace because they'll be able to offer him a first team position whereas we possibly won't..
Big difference now. Johnson, Howson, Snoddy, Becchio - all much older, all on much shorter contracts, all unhappy at the club (Bates era), wanted chance in the Prem and felt they wouldn't get the chance with Leeds. Byram has only had a year in the first team, plenty of time before he needs to move to "better" himself. Longer contract, happy at Leeds and most important - no Bates, new era. Ok we're not loaded but things are looking a lot better under McD and there's a new buzz around the place. Of course, that's not to say he won't go, every player has a price and Leeds can't afford to turn down silly money. But if Bates were still here and a club offered nearly three million, Byram would already be an ex-Leeds player.
Howson was forced out the door, didn't want to leave, and can be seen welling up in his first interview for Norwich City.
laugh all you want, number of controversial incidents surrounding that sale all add up to a player who was happy and didn't want to leave. You seem to be underestimating just how incompetent ken bates is, and just how much damage he did to Leeds United.
Howson has often been on twitter saying how much he loves playing at Norwich in the prem. I've no doubt he was upset to leave (he is a Leeds fan), but Bates couldn't force him to sign for us - that's not legally possible. If he'd wanted to stay, he would have just seen out the rest of his contract. It's quite clear that he wanted to play premier league football and that he didn't see Leeds offering him that any time soon, in which case he wanted to leave. I'm not surprised he was emotional though, because he seems like a good guy and genuinely supports Leeds. Oh and I definitely don't underestimate Bates' incompetence. The man should be banned from football. Good point - £8.5m for Gayle is crazy money! But no - the idea of looking at a player's value by seeing the bids offered is because a player is only worth as much as clubs are willing to pay. They will probably start at the bottom range of what they think the sellers are likely to accept, to test the water. If it's true (and I don't think it's been confirmed?) that Palace have bid £3m, then that would be the bottom of the range. It's no guarantee, but it's a starting point. Then you might demand £8m, with the clubs finally meeting somewhere in the middle. The bottom line is that £4.5m or so would be an absolutely fantastic price for a very young fullback unproven beyond the Championship. It would be quite a good price for a Premier League fullback. I would be very surprised if Leeds don't accept around there, especially if there are good add-ons, because that sort of sum could be invested very effectively. Defenders just simply do not command the same transfer fees as midfielders/strikers.
Thing is though, we could keep Byram for another year, he could break into the U-21 squad, have another great season, take us to play offs/promotion/whatever, and be worth double what we could sell him for this year. Similarly, he could break his leg or have a poor second season that would see his price drop drastically. I think if we keep him another year at least, we could sell him for a lot more than £4.5m. Now I'm not saying he'd be worth more (based on his actual ability), but if he was to break into the England U21s, finish in team of the year etc, his price would rocket further. Why sell for £4.5m this season when he could potentially be worth double that next year? Not to mention the fact he's a top RB in this division and will play a vital role in any success we may or may not have Also, you say defenders don't go for as much as midfielders/forwards - perfectly true, but he's English - and English players go for twice as much as their foreign counterparts.
